Go back Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
The closing date is 09 November 2025
Are you an experienced and enthusiastic speech and language therapist with a passion for working with adults with dysfluency? Do you have a background in both dysfluency and neurological disorders of communication and swallowing? We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced speech and language therapist to join our friendly team of SLTs across east and west Kent.
Main duties of the job
As a Highly Specialist SLT you will:
* Provide clinical expertise and leadership for the service to adults with dysfluency across the service
* Hold dysfluency clinics in Canterbury and Maidstone
* Also hold a general adult community neurological caseload within the Ashford South Kent locality
* Really make a difference to people's communication, eating and drinking and their lives
We will support you in the role and provide regular management and clinical supervision. We are a CQC rated OUTSTANDING Trust and team. The Kent Community Health Adult Speech & Language Therapy service is friendly and welcoming. We are committed to continually developing our staff and services. Our service consists of about 25 therapists and assistant practitioners. We really value our staff and they in turn value the support and opportunities that we provide.
We offer excellent clinical supervision (individual and group) and hold regular in-service training days. Have a look at what the team say about us: SLT AHP New edit.mov on Vimeo.
For more information about this role, please contact Liz Gould, Joint Clinical Operational Manager of Adult SLT at liz.gould@nhs.net to ask any questions or arrange a telephone chat.
About us
Rated 'outstanding' by the CQC, we've got a passion for delivering high standards of patient care and excellent services to improve the health of our communities. To do this we need outstanding people who share our values compassionate, Aspirational, Responsive, Excellent.
We know a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion leads to better patient care and a happier workforce. We pride ourselves in being diverse and welcome applications from people with varied backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.
We ask for information about your protected characteristics on our application forms. This isn't visible to anyone involved with shortlisting or interviewing you, except when you choose to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme due to disability. Shortlists will see two ticks alongside your application to ensure they apply the principles of the scheme to your submission.
The data we collect helps us to ensure we are attracting diversity in our applicants, that all our colleagues have equitable access to career opportunities and supports us on our journey to being a Great Place to Work.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want you to be able to work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Talk to us about a flexible working arrangement that won't involve sacrificing time for personal interests or family commitments. We'll support you to work flexibly in a way that will suit us both.
See where you can go with KCHFT career pathways.
Job responsibilities
Please note: at this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB).
As a community Trust many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. As such you will be asked to confirm you have a full UK driving licence where driving is a requirement of the role to be able to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment, if you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team via kentchft.recruitment@nhs.net quoting the vacancy reference number so we can support you further.
The job description and person specification gives you all the information you need about this role. Please look carefully at the criteria in the person specification and tell us what you have done that shows you meet this in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.
Still have questions? The recruiting manager would love to hear from you, their contact details can be found in the job advert.
We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.
At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.
Find out more about the community differencehere.
Good luck! We cant wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* HCPC registration as a Speech and Language Therapist
* Evidence of relevant post-graduate development at Level 6; Postgraduate specialist training/qualifications relevant to area of practice to include both dysfluency and neurology/adult acquired disorders (e.g. dysphagia, counselling, dysfluency approaches, Personal Construct Psychology)
* Leadership or management training
Experience
* Experience in area of practice, to include working with dysfluency and adult neurological caseloads.
* Experience of involvement in service development or quality improvement initiatives.
* Experience supporting others through mentoring, supervision, or education.
* Competence in using outcome measures and audit tools to evaluate clinical effectiveness.
* Significant experience of working with a general adult neurology caseload in the community setting
* Experience of leading on service development or quality improvement initiatives.
* Experience of delivering training or presentations to professionals or service users
Knowledge
* Proven ability to develop effective partnerships to achieve practical outcomes across organisational boundaries including statutory organisations, external agencies, community and voluntary organisations
* Ability to contribute to research or service evaluation
Skills
* Excellent clinical reasoning and decision making; Ability to evaluate and implement research/best practice
* Effective time management and ability to prioritise under pressure
* Skills in delivering group therapy or workshops for people who stammer.
Personal Attributes
* Motivated and proactive in clinical and service development; Able to motivate and organise others; Ability to manage and lead change
* Demonstrable leadership potential and ability to inspire others
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
£47,810 to £54,710 a year per annum pro rata
#J-18808-Ljbffr